20 Rooms That Prove That Stripes Are The Best

No offense, other patterns, but crisp, cheerful stripes might just be the best part of any room.

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Photographer: Michael Mundy

A grand blue-and-white striped antique dhurrie anchors the living room of a Hamptons house decorated by Victoria Hagan. Its palette is echoed throughout the room to create a chic but restful scheme. Fun fact: This room reportedly helped to inspire Diane Keaton's living room in the 2003 movie Something's Gotta Give.

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Photographer: William Waldron

Designer Sheila Bridges painted the office-cum-guest room of her Harlem apartment with a dashing arrangement of orange, black, white, and gray stripes. The color scheme is straight out of the early 19th century, while the effect is utterly mod.

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Splendor in the Bath

In the New York City apartment shared by Tom Bezucha and Margaret "Sam" Hamilton, a lively red-and-white-striped shower curtain and striped terry towels make a brilliant statement in a bathroom.

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Vibrant orange-and-pink stripes race down the bedroom-corridor walls of designer Muriel Brandolini's Victorian weekend house in Southampton, New York.

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Photographer: Pieter Estersohn

A Positive Accent

At either end of her dining table in Connecticut, designer Kristiina Ratia placed overscale chairs covered in wide black-and-white stripes that contrast with the linen-slipcovered side chairs.

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Photographer: Thibault Jeanson

Interior designer Alessandra Branca inventively set off the vertical stripes of a client's laundry room by papering the adjacent bath with the same pattern applied horizontally. The wall covering is Large Stripe by Clarence House.

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Photographer: Thibault Jeanson

Lilac-and-white hand-painted stripes provide a crisp background for an eclectic Paris salon decorated by Brussels-based designer Bruno de Caumont. They also help visually organize the array of art and objects.

In a tower bedroom of his French country house, designer Todd Hase amplified the space's angles by installing Brunschwig & Fils's Simply Stripes wallpaper. Vintage fabrics in the same palette were made into curtains.

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Photographer: Simon Upton

The Manhattan apartment of Paula Caravelli and her family features a dashing butler's pantry whose walls sport earth-tone stripes in an eye-catching horizontal formation.

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Photographer: William Waldron

Do It Yourself

Malene Waldron painted various shades of blue, yellow, and green onto a plank ceiling at the farmhouse in Columbia County, New York, she shares with her husband, photographer William Waldron, and their children.

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Photographer: Fernando Bengoechea

Nautical but Nice

Artist Christopher Farnam hand-painted stripes up the nursery-wing walls of the Long Island residence of antiques dealers Charsi and Ian Harrington. The fresh blue-and-white scheme is a reference to the nearby Atlantic Ocean.

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Photographer: William Waldron

In the dining room of her Atlanta house, interior designer Suzanne Kasler clad Dupuy side chairs by Nancy Corzine in Rio, a chic neutral stripe by Manuel Canovas, which she ran across the seat and back instead of vertically.

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Photographer: Thibault Jeanson

Awning stripes in soft shades of cream and gray are painted onto the walls of a guest room at designer Catherine Memmi's getaway in Normandy, France, a house whose color scheme references the moody landscape.

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Photographer: Pieter Estersohn

At her house on Long Island Sound, Susan Harris outfitted a guest room with two striped patterns that blend rather than fight. The bed skirt, coverlet, and pillowcases are made of SeaCloth's Boardwalk cotton-linen, while the yellow-and-white-striped carpet was made by Country Swedish.

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Photographer: John M. Hall

All Lined Up

In the master bedroom of Gaser Tabakoglu's Germantown, New York, home, an Anglo-Indian bed rises amid walls lined with red-and-white stripes. The vertical pattern has the effect of making the canopy bed look as if it's seamlessly connected to the walls.

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Photographer: Pieter Estersohn

In his Chicago living room, interior designer Nate Berkus rolled out a striped carpet custom made by Madeline Weinrib to give the space a jazzy sense of movement and pattern.

Art consultant Quito Fierro gave the guest bedroom of his Paris apartment the look of an elegant cage by sheathing the walls in a striped fabric by Pierre Frey. The bed's airy metal canopy seems to disappear into the pattern.

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Photographer: Roger Davies

Small Space, Grand Effect

The barrel-vaulted master bath of Jamie Creel and Marco Scarani's apartment in Paris is lined with black-and-white stripes. Extended onto a section of the ceiling, the pattern adds extra drama to the niche framing the nickel-and-brass tub.

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